The University of Oklahoma Board of Regents has authorized school President David Boren to make any necessary decisions regarding the school's conference affiliation.

OU President David Boren speaks during the dedication ceremony for the Jeannine Rainbolt College of Education on Dec. 6, 2010. Photo by Jim Beckel, The Oklahoman Archive

OU's regents met Monday in Tulsa and unanimously approved the decision to give Boren full authority to take action — whatever and whenever that might be.

Boren said after the meeting that he has had “informal” discussions with Pac-12 officials and that those talks were “warm” and “constructive.”

Boren also said that OU was working closely with representatives at Oklahoma State University, reiterating the schools' desire to remain in the same conference.

Oklahoma State's regents have called a Wednesday meeting to discuss conference realignment.

The Big 12 and, in a sense, the rest of the college football world has been in a holding pattern for the past two weeks waiting for someone to make the next move in this conference chess game. Texas A&M made the first this summer, saying it would withdraw from the Big 12 if it found another conference partner.

The SEC was presumed all along to be that partner, and it moved forward to bring in the Aggies' as the conference's 13th member. After initially signing off on the decision, a few Big 12 schools — Baylor, in particular — made it known they would not waive their rights to legal action if Texas A&M's move led to the fall of the Big 12. That stalled the move becoming official, because of the SEC's hesitancy to welcome Texas A&M with a legal cloud hanging over it.